1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic measuring device, an ultrasonic image device, and a method for processing an ultrasonic image, and the like.
2. Related Art
Ultrasonic diagnostic devices have a problem in that a signal obtained by emitting ultrasound from an ultrasonic transducer and receiving the ultrasound reflected by a target subject by the ultrasonic transducer convolves narrow band characteristics of the ultrasonic transducer, and thus the reflected signal has a wide pulse width even if the target subject is a spot, resulting in an ultrasonic image in which the target subject appears stretched.
To address this problem, in order to improve the resolution of ultrasonic images, a technique is known for obtaining an ultrasonic image having a high spatial resolution by removing the narrow band characteristics of the ultrasonic transducer convolved in the reception signal with the use of a filter (deconvolution filter) so as to reduce spreading of the reception signal.
For example, JP-A-2011-521730 discloses a technique in which in order to remove a dip included in a power spectrum of the reception signal when determining a transfer function with respect to individual scan lines, a cepstrum of the power spectrum is determined, and only a low frequency component is extracted therefrom. This method, however, requires a significant amount of calculation time and memory, and also has a problem in that the spreading of the reception signal cannot be reduced to a satisfactory level because phase characteristics are not included in the transfer function.